FERC approves Mountain Valley gas pipeline extension, several smaller projects

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved June 18 the 75-mile Southgate extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC natural gas transmission system.

Mountain Valley now reaches about 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia, its construction not quite completed. The Southgate extension will run from Chatham, Va., to a point in Alamance County, NC, a little south of the city of Burlington.

Mountain Valley is expected to provide up to 2 bcfd of firm transmission capacity for gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales to markets in the mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic regions. The Southgate extension will have a capacity of up to 375 MMcfd.

It is a joint venture of EQM Midstream Partners LP, NextEra Capital Holdings Inc., Con Edison Transmission Inc., WGL Midstream (an affiliate of Washington Gas Light Co.), and RGC Midstream (an affiliate of Roanoke Gas Co.). EQM, a unit of Equitrans Midstream Corp., will operate the pipeline.

Other projects advance

The certificate of public convenience and necessity granted by FERC to Mountain Valley was one of several certificates the regulator approved at its monthly meeting. FERC also approved:

• A Texas Eastern Transmission LP plan for a 0.2-mile pipeline interconnection and a compressor station at the Venture Global Calcasieu Pass export terminal in Louisiana for LNG. The Cameron Extension Project is designed for 750 MMcfd of capacity.
• The Lamar County Expansion Project proposed by Gulf South Pipeline Co. LLC in Mississippi. The project will include a 3.4-mile pipeline and a compressor station.
• An expansion of the proposed Magnolia LNG LLC plan for an LNG export terminal near Lake Charles, La. The expansion would raise production capacity at Magnolia LNG to 8.8 million tonnes/year (tpy) from 8 million tpy.
• ANR Pipeline Co.’s proposal to build a new compressor station and modify two existing compressor stations as part of its Grand Chenier XPress Project in Acadia, Jefferson Davis, and Cameron parishes in Louisiana. The project would provide firm transportation service of 400 MMcfd incremental capacity. ANR is a unit of TC Energy Corp.
• A plan by Portland Natural Gas Transmission in Maine to expand the certificated capacity of its north system by 81 MMcfd and to expand the certificated capacity of a portion of its system jointly owned by Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC by 50 MMcfd.

FERC denied rehearing on an amendment of the PennEast Pipeline Co. LLC plan for some route adjustments for its proposed gas pipeline to run east from Pennsylvania into New Jersey. The amendment, approved by FERC in March, addressed landowner concerns and practical details of construction for the 116-mile project with a planned capacity up to 1.1 bcfd.